Just to be a downer, of course, but leave us not forget that those "free" pens don't just fall out of the sky.

OK, OK, roll your eyes, I don't care. But when companies give out free pens, they figure that in their overhead, which is handed down to guess who?

My customers walk out with pens maybe about three a week. They're pretty much crummy cheap pens, and they walk away by accident. Once in a while I inadvertantly order "good" ones, and I lose maybe one a day.

That sounds like peanuts, but I'm a little bitty Post Office. Five pens a week in every Post Office comes out to something like $30,000 a year. And we're not even giving them out on purpose!!

By the way, I most certainly DO take a free pen or other gizmo when offered, and I'm not saying it's an evil practice. I'm just saying they're not really free. My theory is more like, I paid for it anyway somehow, so I might as well take it!

The giveaway kind aren't usually attractive to those of us who are pen snobs, right Cindy? My preference right now is the Staedtler Liquid Point 7, with the superfine point.